Crowdfunding is a method sometimes used by businesses to raise money. Companies often offer some form of equity, rewards, or other incentives for contributing money. Successful crowdfunding campaigns often provide investors with a clear business plan explaining how the funds will be used and why the product or service will be successful.
Funding isn’t always guaranteed, however, so we’ve compiled a list of important crowdfunding statistics that may help you. These statistics touch on various aspects of crowdfunding, such as geographical popularity, year-over-year trends, and characteristics of successful crowdfunding campaigns.
If you’re interested in starting the process for crowdfunding, you can view our crowdfunding instructions. You can also consider Kickstarter as a platform to utilize as it can provide a high amount of exposure for your company for a small amount of fees.
General Crowdfunding Statistics
1. In 2022, Crowdfunding Raised More Than $17.2 billion in North America
While crowdfunding may not be a traditional way to get money for your business, it is a popular one. 2022 information shows the worldwide crowdfunding market at $17.2 billion. The size of this market is a testament that not only is there a large demand for businesses to gain more access to funding, but also that investors see the potential return on investment from these companies.
2. The Global Crowdfunding Market Size Is Expected to More Than Double by 2030
While historical data has shown that the crowdfunding market has grown, experts also forecast that this trend will continue. This is supported by data from both Statista and Market Data Forecast, with the latter estimating a growth of nearly $35 billion by 2028.
This continued expansion of crowdfunding popularity can be attributed to the presence of social media platforms. These platforms help create more exposure for crowdfunding campaigns, bringing more attention and awareness to a company’s goals and needs.
3. As of September 2023, the United States Had the Largest Amount of Crowdfunding
As a business owner, being geographically located where there are a higher number of sources for crowdfunding can help your chances of success. According to data, the US has raised the highest dollar amount as of September 2023. Other top countries include Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
4. The Average Amount Raised per Crowdfunding Campaign Is Approximately $7,750
As of September 2023, the average amount raised by a crowdfunding campaign is slightly less than $7,800. On an annual basis, this amount has remained relatively consistent going back to 2017, with averages bottoming out as low as $7,420 in 2022 and at a high of $8,330 in 2019.
Business owners can use crowdfunding as one of several methods of getting more money. If you need additional capital, you can consider our recommendations for other types of startup business loans.
5. Less Than 25% of Crowdfunding Campaigns Meet the Funding Goal
Business owners should be aware that crowdfunding campaigns have a low success rate. According to data, only 23.7% of projects end up reaching the initial funding goal. This is based on data from 2014 through November 2023.
Due to the low success rate, business owners should not rely on crowdfunding as a source of funds, research what needs to be done to improve the chances of success and have a backup plan to get funds elsewhere as a last resort.
6. Successful Crowdfunding Campaigns Have an Average of 339 Investors
When it comes to crowdfunding, there is strength in numbers. Looking only at crowdfunding campaigns that successfully reached the goal, there were over 300 unique investors who contributed money.
Getting funding from this many investors requires your campaign to have a wide reach. Additionally, business owners thinking of utilizing crowdfunding should have a plan for how to spread awareness and market the company’s product.
7. Crowdfunding Campaigns That Communicate Funding Goals EffectivelyRaise More Funds
It should come as no surprise that crowdfunding campaigns that effectively market their product and communicate funding needs and next steps have a higher success rate. As evidence of this, there is data showing that businesses that provide a visual representation of their funding goals raise an average of 35% more than those that don’t.
Other methods you can consider to increase your chances of success include providing a video, as there is data to support that videos can help raise 150% more than if you opted to skip this step. Providing a summary to help potential backers more quickly and easily understand your funding needs can also help as the average word count for successful projects has been shown to be between just 300 and 500 words.
Platform-specific Statistics
8. Kickstarter Is One of the Most Popular Crowdfunding Platforms
Data from 2014 through November 2023 shows that Kickstarter is one of the most popular crowdfunding platforms. It averages nearly 150 backers per crowdfunding campaign, with the largest number of completed projects funded.
According to Kickstarter’s crowdfunding stats page, it has more than $22 million backers, with over $7.8 million as repeat backers, and more than 91 million pledges made to crowdfunding campaigns. It has also raised around $7.7 billion in funds.
9. FundRazr Has the Highest Overall Success Rate
FundRazr is a crowdfunding platform for nonprofits, social causes, and professional fundraisers. While it’s not as popular as Kickstarter, it still has a large footprint, having raised more than $250 million across over 200,000 campaigns. Additionally, business owners utilizing FundRazr as a crowdfunding platform experience the highest overall success rate of nearly 43%.
10. Kickstarter’s Most Popular Category for Crowdfunding Is Gaming
Kickstarter specializes in consumer-facing products, and gaming is its most popular category. It has over 82,000 projects related to gaming, raising more than $2.3 billion, and an overall success rate of nearly 49%. Other top categories on the Kickstarter platform include design, technology, film & video, and publishing.
11. 47% of Indiegogo Campaigns Are Run by Women
Getting funding as an underserved business or community can be particularly challenging. If you fall into these categories, you may want to seek crowdfunding platforms that have shown a greater ability to provide assistance in some form, such as easier eligibility criteria, reduced documentation requirements, more market exposure, and reduced fees.
Indiegogo, for instance, may be a good crowdfunding platform to consider for women-owned businesses. Nearly half of its crowdfunding campaigns that exceed funding goals are run by women, which is significant considering the fact that only 22% of businesses are women-owned.
12. Indiegogo Has Over 10 Million Visitors Each Month
Some crowdfunding platforms may cater to underserved businesses and communities but in exchange can sometimes have a much smaller reach. Indiegogo is the exception to this, as it has over 10 million website visitors each month. It also offers funding to more than 235 countries & territories with approximately 19,000 campaigns each month.
13. Wefunder Is the Top Equity Crowdfunding Platform
Different types of crowdfunding exist depending on the type of reward or incentive offered by a company. Equity crowdfunding is a form of raising money where backers receive equity in exchange for contributing funds.
Based on the most recent data for 2022, Wefunder was the most popular equity crowdfunding platform in terms of number of investors and total funds raised.
Industry Statistics
14. Technology Companies Have Raised the Most Amount of Funds
Taking into consideration multiple crowdfunding platforms, technology companies have been able to attract the largest amount of funding. Successful technology crowdfunding campaigns raise nearly $1.3 million on average, with nearly $19 billion raised since 2014.
As the business owner of a technology company, being aware of this data can help you determine your chances of getting the amount of funding you need. When choosing a crowdfunding platform to start a campaign, however, be aware that not all crowdfunding platforms are created equal, as some platforms may exhibit funding amounts far below these averages.
15. Comics and Graphic Novels Have the Highest Success Rate
As mentioned previously, crowdfunding campaigns typically have a low success rate. Comics and graphic novels, however, see much more success with a nearly 60% success rate, more than double the average of under 25%. Business owners thinking of launching a crowdfunding campaign should consider not only the overall success rate of crowdfunding in general but also of the industry they operate in.
16. Gaming Has the Greatest Number of Backers per Campaign
On average, crowdfunding campaigns centered around gaming projects have an average of 456 backers. When only taking into consideration successful projects, that figure increases to an average of 778.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes. Data from various sources, including Statista and Market Data Forecast, shows that crowdfunding raised more than $17.2 billion worldwide in 2022 alone. Forecasts also show this to more than double by the year 2030.
Crowdfunding can be difficult, as less than 25% of campaigns meet their initial funding goal. Successful crowdfunding campaigns have been shown to reach a wide range of audiences, provide a concise summary of the company’s product, and offer information pertaining to how much additional funds are needed to reach the company’s goal.
Providing a short description of the product, videos with additional information, and a visual representation of how much additional funding is needed has been shown to improve the success rate of crowdfunding.
Bottom Line
Being aware of certain crowdfunding stats can help you identify trends and characteristics of successful campaigns. While success is never guaranteed, your chances should go up the more that you have in common with crowdfunding campaigns that have historically performed well. If you need to resort to additional methods of funding such as business loans, follow our tips on getting a small business loan to boost your chances of getting approved.
